Jury Orders Apple to Pay VirnetX $503 Million for Patent Infringement

A jury has ordered Apple to pay VirnetX $502.9 million in damages for patent infringement, reports Bloomberg. The jury reached its verdict in just 90 minutes.

VirnetX has been battling Apple in court for a decade. The company says it developed technology for the CIA which was then used by Apple in its VPN on Demand and FaceTime features. Apple was forced to pay VirnetX $454 million earlier this year in another case.

In this trial, a Tyler, Texas jury was asked only to decide how much Apple owes VirnetX for VPN on Demand, after an appeals court upheld a finding of infringement. VirnetX wanted over $700 million, Apple countered at $113 million or 19 cents per unit. The jury decided to award VirnetX 84 cents per unit.


“We thank the jury for their time and appreciate their consideration but are disappointed with the verdict and plan to appeal,” an Apple spokesperson said in a statement. “This case has been going on for over a decade, with patents that are unrelated to the core operations of our products and have been found to be invalid by the patent office. Cases like this only serve to stifle innovation and harm consumers.”

More details in the full report linked below...

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